The U.S. Department of Justice has charged an NSA contractor with sending classified material a reporter at The Intercept
The contractor, Reality Leigh Winner, 25, was charged with removing classified material from a government facility on June 3.
The documents, which were taken from an NSA facility in Georgia, detail efforts by the Russian Government to infiltrate a U.S. voting software company with "spear-phishing" emails. The emails are designed to fool the recipient to click on a link which then installs compromising software on their system.
These attacks are commonplace across the internet and require only a basic knowledge of network security. The software, however, can be very complex. How it was attributed directly to the Russians is unknown. Spoofing or using an IP address from Russia is a matter of practice for intelligence agencies and independent hackers. The software, while it may have been originally coded by Ukrainians, can be used by anyone.
Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI has commented on the case beyond the filing.
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